Trump meets like-minded Putin, while the West watches

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For most of the past 80 years, there was something called “the West”: a group of democratic, relatively open countries that traded with each other, built networks and believed similar things about what the world should be. The like-minded.

That’s gone. The U.S., the West’s main backer, has effectively dissolved the association. In Alaska on Friday, there will be a meeting of the new “like-minded” pair: U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The two will discuss the fate of Ukraine, which neither of them really see as a country with agency of its own.

Before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Mr. Putin wrote an essay on the “historical unity” of Russians and Ukrainians that argued Ukraine’s borders are illegitimate concoctions and that it can only have “sovereignty” in partnership with Russia. Mr. Trump, in his pithy style, told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February that he had “no cards” to determine how the war should end.

Analysis: Trump and Putin in Alaska is a study in contrasts

Now, Mr. Trump sounds a little different. On Thursday, in the Oval Office, he insisted that the Alaska meeting will be followed by a more important meeting that includes Mr. Zelensky. But Mr. Trump has shown more interest in hearing Mr. Putin’s view.

It’s no wonder that European leaders haven’t put much trust in Mr. Trump’s warning earlier this week that Mr. Putin would face “severe consequences” if he blocks a ceasefire.

That became clear when German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pulled together a virtual meeting with Mr. Trump that included Mr. Zelensky and several European leaders in an attempt to steer Mr. Trump away from bargaining away Ukrainian territory or post-ceasefire security.

Prime Minister Mark Carney took part in a second virtual meeting that day of other leaders of the so-called “coalition of the willing” of Ukraine supporters with U.S. Vice-President JD Vance.

The once like-minded West now has to try to squeeze a last-minute word into American ears in the hope Mr. Trump doesn’t cough up concessions to a Russian President who invaded a European nation.

The concerns go wider. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wanted to ensure Mr. Trump doesn’t agree to a request from Mr. Putin to reduce NATO troops in Eastern Europe, and in particular, Poland.

“That’s why it is so important that we build such a strong and united group of states, both in relation to Russia, but also in relation to other allies, like the United States,” Mr. Tusk told reporters Wednesday, according to Reuters.

That’s a European leader worried that Mr. Trump will casually concede a weakening of the security of NATO allies that have felt vulnerable since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Opinion: A stronger Ukraine would be the only acceptable outcome of the Alaska summit

Mr. Trump does have some valid complaints about the equity of NATO security and support for Ukraine, in that the U.S, has paid more for both than its allies.

But it isn’t just money. Mr. Trump wants to be able to claim he ended the war. But he has always been too willing to accept the Russian rationale for peace – and the idea that Russia should keep Ukrainian territory in exchange for a ceasefire.

And the U.S. President has been peculiarly willing to treat with Mr. Putin, displaying admiration, treating the Russian leader rather than the leaders of his allies, as his equal. Mr. Trump has airily overlooked or excused Mr. Putin’s war-making in his quest for a ceasefire.

Even in June, after Mr. Trump had already expressed frustration with Mr. Putin’s unwillingness to reach a ceasefire deal, the U.S. President showed up at the G7 meeting in Kananaskis, Alta., complaining that it was a mistake to kick Russia out of the then-G8 in 2014, after the country’s annexation of Crimea.

That rambling complaint included the notion that Mr. Putin’s feelings has been hurt – the U.S. President claimed his Russian counterpart has been “insulted” – but that Mr. Trump still had a special relationship with him.

“Putin speaks to me. He doesn’t speak to anybody else,” Mr. Trump said at the time.

Now Mr. Putin has an invitation. To a summit, on U.S. soil, and plans for a joint news conference.

Let’s hope that this time, Mr. Trump will really press Mr. Putin. European leaders, and Mr. Zelensky, will be hoping that he doesn’t succumb to the Russian President’s claims that parts of Ukraine was never really Ukrainian, anyway. Mr. Trump usually seems to see Mr. Putin as like-minded.